Soon a new step in the campaign against Covid in Mexico? On Monday, a court ordered federal health authorities to open vaccination against the virus to all minors between the ages of 12 and 17.
The Naucalpan court validated a request from a couple in the State of Mexico who had filed an injunction to allow their 15-year-old daughter to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. This decision is expected to have repercussions across the country, as the court invoked “the human right to health for the community, in this case, to all adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17.”
Consulted by the Spanish daily El Pais, the court order gives federal health authorities 48 hours to initiate vaccination for minors over 12 years of age with the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine. The Ministry of Health therefore has until tomorrow, Thursday, October 14, to respond to the Court. “We will carefully analyze the case, of course with the support we always receive from the legal adviser, the Home Secretary and, as always, instructions from the President,” said Hugo López-Gatell, the Minister of Health. .
For several months, judges from different Mexican states have granted exemptions to other minors, but today it is the first time that a court decision has included all adolescents in the country. In September, minors who presented with comorbidities that could worsen the disease were finally able to claim vaccination, and 23,000 young people have already registered for an appointment. The president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, had initially said that teens, not part of the audiences at risk, would be excluded from the vaccination campaign.
In Mexico, the fourth country most bereaved by the Covid-19 pandemic, 66 million people have received at least one dose of the vaccine, which represents only 50% of the population, and 37% of Mexicans are fully vaccinated.
